


Input

by HikariYumi



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Overstimulation, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker struggles, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Protective Tony Stark, Sensory Overload, Sensory Procession Disorder, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HikariYumi/pseuds/HikariYumi
Summary: After everything that went down on Peter's Prom night the communication between Tony and Peter has improved. They even perform little missions and battles together from time to time. One day, after upgrading Spider-man's suit, the new feature backfires horribly and unforeseen.





	Input

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there,  
> after seing Spiderman Homecoming a few days ago I fell in love with Peters and Tonys relationship all over again. So much that I couldn't help myself and had to write a little thing despite a truckload of things I should be doing.  
> Also, Peter in Sensory Overload? That's my new headcanon.  
> On this note I want to mention that I did a bit of research on this topic as well as Sensory processing disorder but not nearly enough to be an expert. That leads to me taking... liberties in my depiction of said things and hope no one will mind.  
> I don't mean to insult or portray this too wrong and I apologise if that happened.  
> There are no real warnings in the tags, but if something that reads itself like a panic attack upsets you I advice to not read any further.
> 
> That said, thanks for swinging by.  
> ~Hikari
> 
> P.S. As always, I'm no native speaker and sometimes terrible blind to language rubbish I produce. My lovely beta does her best, but doesnt notice every slip up. If you want to feel free to point out my mistakes, I appreciate that.

The soft, caressing rain had been replaced by loud and aggressive downpour, the kind which promised severe weather coming up.

Tony's eyes expertly searched for Peter's agile frame, quickly finding it swinging over the narrow balcony not too far away. The red of his improved suit flashed brightly through the dulled colours of his surroundings, underlining the cheerful character of the teenager.

Obviously unaffected by the water, which drummed on his covered skin, Peter hurried to climb and jump over to the house top Tony was waiting for him.

"Mr. Stark, that was awesome!"  
  
It was refreshing to be around someone this young and good hearted, the excitement spilling out of every word without any restraint. Tony didn't even need to see the boy's face to know there was a bright grin dominating his features.  
  
"The suit was doing okay? Anything needing adjustments?"

Prior to the mission Tony had taken in the suit along with Peter, spending quite some time discussing possible improvements of the handling as well as new ideas.  
  
One of those improvements had been, for example, turning the chemicals responsible for the boys webbing more resistant to water, which had come pretty handy today.  
  
Another thing was something that Peter had requested casually over tinkering with said formula.  
  
It was something that had slipped Tony's mind, something that the boy had mentioned at their very first meeting.

Peter's first suit, the home made one which might've looked shabby compared to the one he wore now but could've been way worse, have had darkened goggles. Since the boy's incident - at least Tony assumed that was the reason - Peter was a lot more sensible to sensory input of any kind, and it had taken all those months since Berlin to make him remind Tony of this.  
  
Naturally the very next thing on his agenda had been to update the suit to serve the need of going against too much input.

 

At the beginning Tony had gone about the general settings, made the interface less bright and flashy but left Karen's voice as it had been due to Peter's request. He couldn't say that he didn't find it endearing how the boy had taken a liking to the young AI. It reminded him a bit of his own early days with JARVIS.  
  
The next step had been a new program, something to actively shift into if Peter would need it. It included darkened sight, comparable with the original goggles, but with enhanced filters so that the sight itself wouldn't be worsened as well as turning down and filtering the sounds from the outside.

 

These things actually were more tricky than Tony had thought at the beginning, because Peter had to rely on his vision to be able to move quickly as well as swing around in extreme heights. Also while in battle, sounds were greatly important as well to not be surprised by the opponent.  
  
That being said, it had taken a while to make everything work so Tony was overly glad to see that the test hadn't brought back any major issues. Even though the tinkering with his young colleague had been quite fun.

"Let's go back, then."  
  
Due to the increasingly bad weather, Peter returned with Tony, taking advantage of Iron Man's superior speed thanks to flying abilities and mentioned to call May that he would come home later.  
  
Even if his aunt now finally had the knowledge of her nephew's secret identity, Peter tended to still keep some things hidden to not worry her. Tony was aware that he should do something against that, be a responsible adult, but he could understand Peter too well. He would do exactly the same if he was in his place.

In the compound the hallways were uncharacteristically silent, Tony wondered absently if he was missing a briefing again. But he hadn't received any 'urgent' calls from the higher ups or Happy, so he took things were fine.  
  
After setting Peter down on solid ground, Tony got rid of the Mark, feeling relieved to move without it again. The fight had been a lot longer than anticipated, having stretched on for hours and leaving his muscles a bit sore after the all-nighter and last day's combat training.  
  
He was seriously getting old, he didn't have those problems a few years ago when he started being Iron Man.

"You should change and call your aunt, otherwise she'll figure that you're not learning with your chairman," Tony grinned when he noticed Peter getting interested in the unusual state of the facility.  
  
"Yeah I should," the boy mumbled and followed the older man through the hallways while rolling his mask up. Most likely, Tony mused, the feeling of not having a skintight suit clinging to him anymore would be as relieving as getting rid of the Mark. They would both need a shower as soon as possible.  
  
Maybe he could leave the kid with his phone in the workshop and get ready first to grant him a bit of privacy.

Tony turned around to make this suggestion and was startled to not find peter right behind him as usual. Instead the boy stood a few metres away, as if he'd stopped abruptly, looking kind of frozen to the spot.  
  
"Hey kid, you okay?" Tony raised a questioning eyebrow but had to notice that Peter didn't even react. Had he gotten hurt in the battle and shock was coming through late, now that he was safe? "Kid? Peter? Can you tell me what's happening? Are you in pain?"  
  
The boy didn't answer, didn't move except his eyes, the pupils were blown wide despite the white, artificial light that dominated most of the building, which were jumping frantically. Funnily enough Tony supposed that Peter didn't really see anything.  
  
When he crept another few steps closer it grew more evident that the boy really seemed to be in some kind of shock, his body was trembling subtly, steady as a hum.

Sensory overload, Tony realised, that was what was happening. It made too much sense to be a wrong assumption, it could happen easily to sensitive people who were known to have problems with these things. He himself tended to have problems on the other end of the spectrum, he should have seen it coming.  
  
What did he think would happen to Peter after battling for hours in a quiet, darkened setting and then abruptly coming back to reality?

Suddenly Tony became aware of the loud thumps of millions of raindrops splashing onto the roof, growing into a steady mix of sound which had to be agonising for someone with enhanced hearing.  
  
Peter's hands were gripping his mask tightly, pale knuckles turned completely white with the force the boy might've not realised he was applying. Tony wasn't worried about the suit, he knew that it had been exposed to way worse - uncomfortably much worse in his opinion. Still, the man gently took the fabric in hand, careful not to accidentally touch the boy's skin.

"Okay, okay I got it. Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Can you let go of that? Can you walk?"  
  
Naturally Peter didn't answer, didn't look at him, but flinched at the words. As Tony's interference had been a shock, the boy seemed to snap out of the rigour which had clutched him tightly.  
  
The wide eyes snapped shut, squeezed in a fruitless attempt to block it the light as much as possible and the hands flew to Peters ears, really letting go of the mask.  
  
"Okay, good, great." Tony praised eventhough he wasn't sure if this development really was a good one. "Peter? Can I touch you? Then I'll take you to the lab. I'll shut down the lights and will even skip the music, how does that sound?"  
  
Tony wasn't sure if what left the kid's mouth really was a whimper but it clearly sounded like it. On the spur of the moment he just decided to try and lightly placed a hand on Peters back.  
  
He didn't fight, didn't make a sound and didn't even startle too much. Tony counted that as a success.

While they slowly made their way through the building, Tony never hated his decision to locate his quarters at the far end more, the slim chest under his palm started to expand and deflate more regularly.  
  
"There you go." He murmured lowly while anticipating the moment they would finally reach their destination.  
  
Only a few spare agents encountered them, and thanks to a few hard and challenging looks from Tony they all just nodded curtly and hurried away. That could've been worse.

Finally, the heavy door closed behind them and Tony immediately commanded FRIDAY to keep the main lights out and not to bother with the music.  
  
The AI complied without hesitation, but that didn't stop her from asking what the problem was. Despite FRIDAY still being young compared to JARVIS, she was improving rapidly and after Tony explained what was happening to Peter, was quick to assist in making him more comfortable.

Soon, the boy had been peeled out of the rest of the suit, making him able to move and breathe without feeling the snug fabric press against his skin and equipped with a pair of Tony's soundproof headphones.  
  
While Peter slowly calmed down, eased back into hearing and being exposed to sensory input step by step, the older man searched through his contact list to call May. He had decided that she would know about the complications the improved mask could have so that if Peter came home from patrolling, going into overload again, she would know how to handle it.

By the time he had gotten rid of a worried and pissed of aunt, Peter had slumped against the wall, eyes closed and face lax. Exhaustion not only from the battle but his earlier struggles had caught up with him, put him out cold. Well, it was a good thing Tony had already dealt with May, this way he could keep the kid with him over night without worrying to get a visit by a furious woman.

It was a quiet night, Tony as usual didn't sleep more than a couple of hours and instead taught Karen with help of FRIDAY how to support Peter better and went over the programming to make personally sure that there really weren't any bugs left.  
  
He was finished by the time a really tired teenager appeared in the doorway, looking sleepy and ashamed.  
  
Tony decided to brush over that for both their sakes.

"Ah good, you're awake. Wanna take a look at my latest work?"  
  
Peter smiled quietly and shuffled over and flopped down on the workbench next to his mentor.  
  
"Sure thing."

 


End file.
